The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-03-26

and of church and religion, and natur-
ally here, as there, the men Of deepest
conviction and greatest strength were
pushed to the front as leaders. The
first powerful struggle was the war of
the revolution, that gave us National
independence, and then came the task
of securely founding the new republic
and in such great years there arose a
Washington, and an Adams, and JEFF
ferson. That crisis passed, next came
the period of Developments the evo-
luton into higher forms of the princi-
pies of civil and religious liberty. 1t
was not possible for liberty and human
slavery to long live side by side in the
same land. Hence came the war of the
rebellion. And in the evolution of
thought and moral consciousness it was
only natural that the doctrines of relig-
ion should seek higher and better forms
of expression. These struggles have
come in the last fifty years or more, and
in that time other great leaders of
thought and action have been called to
the front.
From the Reformation in Europe,
and from England in the years succeed
ing Cromwell, came the sturdy and lib
erty-loving Puritans and hence from
the region of New England, where
these pioneers of freedom landed, have
come the great anti-slavery and relig-
ious debates, and the powerful leaders
along these lines of thought and prog
ress, and in the last few years one by one
these great souls have been passing
away. Horace Greeley, Charles Sumner,
Wendell Phillips, Garrison, Lovejoy,
Lincoln, Grant. have gone away from
our world. Gone are Charming, Chaplin,
and Emerson. Their great souls, in
passing through the valley'' of earth
the valley of weeping caused
many ''wells" to appear; they have
dried many tears and done much to
make fairer and better the land they
loved.
The last to go was the Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher. Descended from Puri-
tan stock, he naturally inherited the
great Puritan strength and love Of lib
erty. And hence he naturally took his
place as the friend Of liberty, the friend
of the oppressed, the friend of the rights
of man, woman, and child, the friend
of the slave. And from his wonderful
strength and breadth and candor and
sympathy he naturally became a leader
in the great political and religious ques-
lions of the day. And because of this
larger ability, he went farther and did
more than others, and in some things
left all others behind.
This country has produced thousands
of good preachers, and hundreds of more
than ordinary power, and few of very
marked ability but it has produced
only three who, in the midst Of such
high standards of comparison, can be
called really great Simpson, Chaplin,
Beecher but of them, Beecher was
the greatest. The power of Bishop
Simpson was largely spiritual and SYM
pathetic and this, finding expression
in strong, clear and earnest thought,
and in a natural and cumulative form of
oratory, gave him an almost unequaled
hot &c,
of those who listened to his impassion-
ed words. Being bishop, he seldom
spoke but on large occasions, and going
from place to place, he put his strength
into few great sermons. Like Beecher,
he enlarged the sphere of his ministry,
until, especially during the war, it took
in national questions. Beecher stood
in one pulpit for forty years, and made
that pulpit the greatest in the land
and more than Simpson he entered into
the wilder realms of politics and science.
That is the crucial test of power-to be
able to stand for life time in one place,
and to deal with the whole world of
thought. Unlike either Simpson or
Beecher, and more polished in thought
and style, but less sympathetic, Chaplin
was majestic, standing up like pyra
mid or mountain. And yet DR.. Cha
pin was not cold; the sun shone On the
heights; but it was not like the rays
that nestle and dance and laugh in the
valleys. L heard Beecher and Chaplin
in their own pulpits the same Sabbath;
when Beecher was done, 1 wanted to
take him by the hand-he drew me to
him; when Chaplin was done, felt like
I had been standing on the Alps.
wanted to go off and be alone. heard
one sermon from Simpson that burned
in my breast like fire for months after.
1t is difficult to classify or to analyze
the power of such man as Beecher
and it is not possible to estimate his
influence upon the world. He had a
strong, sound body, powerful and
we'll modulated voice, a commanding
presence, a sympathetic heart, and
marvelously fertile and imaginative
mind, that was at the same time re-
markable for its clearness and breadth
of perception; and whilst poetic and